Inter Milan was held to a goalless draw at home to Genoa on Sunday,
but stayed four points clear at the top of the Serie A.
Jose Mourinho's side dominated the match, but was often let
down by wayward shooting or a poor final ball that allowed Genoa's
defense time to clear and reorganize.
"It was a poor performance, but you need to consider the
circumstances," Inter technical director Marco Branca said. "We've
played a lot of games recently and then in midweek a lot of our
players were away with their national teams, so considering all
this it was a good point."
Inter remains top with 59 points, four ahead of AC Milan and
seven of AS Roma in third. Milan drew 0-0 with Roma on Saturday.
"We played our game and gave our all," Branca said. "Tonight
wasn't the best match, but we had three or four good shots and
created a number of good passages of play."
Elsewhere Fabio Miccoli scored nine minutes from time to give
Palermo a 1-0 win at Livorno that takes the Sicilian club into the
Champions League qualification places.
Palermo had struggled to find a breakthrough and Livorno
goalkeeper Rubinho made a number of saves to thwart the team he
left in the January transfer window.
"We knew it would be a tough game," Miccoli said. "We knew we
would have to fight to get into the Champions League places, but
here we are."
Palermo is now fourth on 46 and is two points clear of
Juventus in fifth.
"The team went about its business in a serious way," Palermo
coach Delio Rossi said. "We stuck to our plan and we are having a
good period, not conceding any goals."
At the San Siro, it took until the 40th minute for there to
be a meaningful shot, with Genoa keeper Marco Amelia holding on to
Dejan Stankovic's long range effort.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos tried lobbing Inter keeper Julio
Cesar in the 55th minute, but his shot went high.
After that, Genoa was content to defend and limited Inter to
hopeful shots. Mario Balotelli, Maicon, Samuel Eto'o and Wesley
Sneijder all tried their luck from the edge of the area, but failed
to trouble Amelia.
"We have to improve if we want to get to where Inter, Milan,
Roma and Juventus are," Genoa coach Gianpiero Gasperini said. "We
aren't scoring enough and that has been the story of our season,
but we keep improving and hope we can make the Europa League."
Palermo needed a shot from the edge of the area to finally
find a way past Rubinho. Miccoli picked up a loose ball and fired
low into the corner.
Earlier Rubinho had twice denied Miccoli and after halftime
blocked efforts from Javier Pastore and Edinson Cavani.
Livorno then went close to scoring in the 73rd minute when
Fabio Liverani cleared Dario Knezevic's header off the line.
Napoli slipped to seventh after losing 2-1 away to Bologna.
The home side opened the scoring in the sixth minute when
Marcelo Zalayeta took advantage of hesitation in Napoli's defense
and flicked in Antonio Busce's cross.
Adailton doubled the lead in the 12th when he floated a
freekick over the defense and inside the far post.
Leonardo Rinaudo pulled a goal back for Napoli two minutes
later with a far post header from Ezequiel Lavezzi's cross.
Also Sunday, it was; Atalanta 0, Udinese 0; Bari 1, Chievo
Verona 0; Cagliari 2, Catania 2; Sampdoria 2, Lazio 1; Siena 1,
Parma 1.
